AUTHOR: Leslie Guttman, The San Francisco Chronicle DATE:
Tuesday, 1 June 1999, at 12:21 p.m. In 1997, North Americans
spent $75 million on hemp products, up from$3 million in 1993,
according to John Roulac, founder of Hempbrokers,an international
hemp-seed product supplier in Sebastopol. He estimates that
annual sales could approach $1billion within the next five
years or so.(…) Marijuana, hemp's botanical cousin in the
cannabis family, containsabout 5 to 20 percent THC; hemp usually
contains less than 1 percent,way too little to get a person
high, say hemp activists and numerousscientists.(…) Bob Weiner,
spokesman for National Drug Policy Director Barry McCaffrey,says
the government fears that legalizing hemp would send the wrongmessage
about drugs to young people. He adds that law enforcement
finds it difficult to tell the difference between hemp and
marijuana"from the sky" (via helicopter) when it comes to
pinpointing illegalfields for eradication."We're open to new
research . . . we have no objection to hemp as a product,
we just don't want to see a drug culture come in throughthe
back door," says Weiner.(…) "Sugar is dead," Thielen says
of Hawaii's ex-cash cow and the state's inability to compete
with the bargain-bin prices of sugar in the global marketplace.
"Every day that passes, and we do not allow farmers togrow
industrial hemp, means agricultural workers are unemployed.
Andour land lies fallow."Other states are pushing hard for
hemp. Last month, North Dakota becamethe first state to make
growing and selling industrial hemp legal.(Growers will apply
for DEA permits to do so.)Pro-hemp legislation has either
passed or is brewing in at least 11additional states. (…)The
activists point to Canada as a model of what could be. The
country legalized hemp last year, and about 6,200 acres were
planted, yieldinga crop that sold for approximately $450,000,
according to Robert L'Ecuyer,general manager of Kenex Ltd.,
Canada's largest hemp grower and processor.L'Ecuyer says he
doesn't know yet how much hemp will be planted acrossCanada
in 1999, but it may be five or six times as much as last year.

But a movement has been under way for several years
to reintroduce hemp to Kentucky as an agricultural commodity. To
help educate people about the benefits of this versatile plant,
the Kentucky hemp Growers Cooperative hasopened its museum and library
in Versailles at 149 Lexington Street. Aribbon cutting ceremony
for the museum was held on June 4. kyhempmuse@aol.com